Images(2)

Small "Family" Mask

Artist Toma artist

DateLate 19th to early 20th century

MediumWood

Dimensionsheight, width, and depth: 8 1/2 × 4 1/2 × 2 3/4 in. (21.6 × 11.4 × 7 cm)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineGift of Benita Baird and Ron Barab

Object number2019.3.15

On View

On view

Label TextMiniature masks (ma go: small head), commonly known as “passport masks,” fulfill a variety of functions and look quite distinctly like the larger versions that are performed in masquerades, or the slightly smaller versions that are owned by the family and kept in a shrine. Anyone who has a spiritual connection with a masquerade, or whose family owns an important mask, is entitled to commission a miniature.

Rubbed with oil and food, they are wrapped up and kept on the owner’s body or among his possessions and function as portable and personal forms that share the power and protective force of the full-sized mask. Additionally, when a man travels to an area where he is unknown, the miniature masks convey status and identify him as being under the protection of a full-size mask—hence the common term “passport masks” and the need to own a full-size version prior to commissioning smaller, more portable ones.

Mirroring the impressive reach of the powerful men’s Poro society, these masks are made by several neighboring groups that span across Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.ProvenanceField collected by Joseph M. Baird in Liberia, 1960s; Benita Sue Baird and Ronald Evan Barab, Atlanta, GA; given to NCMA, 2019.Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–present. Object Rights Statement

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